Sante’s new owner thinks wine and lunch go hand in hand

At The Taste of Opera at the Crown Plaza last night, Sante Wine Bar had a primo vending spot. That’s because the new owner of the Grove Arcade wine bar, Allan Morse, also serves on the board of the Asheville Lyric Opera, the group that hosted the event.

Morse, a regular at Sante for nearly six years, purchased the wine bar from former owner Carla Baden late last month. A full-time engineer, Morse jokes that he’s bought his own personal Cheers, so he doesn’t intend to change much. “The only change, initially, is the change of ownership,” he said.

Still, this spring when Sante’s patio opens, Morse will debut a new lunch program spearheaded by Adrienne Hinson, a Sante employee who trained at the Culinary Institute of America. So go ahead and ask your boss if a slightly wine-soaked lunch is OK.

The evening menu will expand to include dinner items that are a bit heftier that the dips and bites that the wine bar has served in the past. Morse will host a re-launch event, likely in late-March or April, where he’ll introduce the new menus and hours (11 a.m.-11 p.m., nightly).

For today, what you need to know is that Mondays are “Fundays” at Sante, which means you can purchase 10 one-ounce pours for $10 between 4 and 6:30 p.m. Sante is located in the Grove Arcade. Here’s the website. We’ll have more in Scene on Friday.